


Learning Curve

by KaytiKazoo



Series: Moments of (Reluctant) Affection [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Family Feels, Fitzsimmons family Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:07:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27597290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaytiKazoo/pseuds/KaytiKazoo
Summary: Fitz, Deke, and Jemma learn how to be a family in little moments.
Relationships: Leo Fitz & Deke Shaw, Leo Fitz & Deke Shaw & Jemma Simmons, Trevor Khan/Deke Shaw
Series: Moments of (Reluctant) Affection [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2017537
Comments: 12
Kudos: 23





	1. Tucking the sheets around them when they stir during the night.

**Author's Note:**

> These are prompts over on [my tumblr](http://kaytikazoo.tumblr.com) that I've written accidentally in the same universe and decided they needed a home :)

Deke was bruised, and there was blood dried on his chin from where it had dripped from his mouth. Fitz hated that, and he wasn’t sure why he felt like throwing punches. Simmons had fussed over Deke actively, brushing her thumb over the bruises gently. She hadn’t let him go back to his own bunk, and instead he’d fallen asleep on their bed.

“Shouldn’t we -” Fitz started.

“Let him sleep, Fitz.”

She squeezed his shoulder as she headed back to the lab to complete some analysis from the day. He sat in the reading chair near the bed, and watched Deke. He wouldn’t admit this out loud, but seeing Deke stumble back in covered in bruises, his eye nearly swollen shut, it had made bile rise in his throat. 

He wanted to throttle whatever, whoever did this to him. He barely even liked Deke - well, no, Fitz did like Deke. He was intolerable at times, but so was anyone. Except Jemma. Deke was an annoying little shit of a genius, who came from him and Jemma, and had a tendency to weasel his way into and out of situations he didn’t belong in. 

Deke started to shift in the bed, eyebrows furrowing as he began to stir. Fitz moved in on tip-toes and, ridiculously, tucked the blankets in around him. He shushed him quietly, something his mother used to do when he was young. He’d thought it was overbearing when he was young, but now, he wished someone would look after him that closely. He did have Jemma, but - this was about Deke. Deke deserved that kind of care, especially following what he’d gone through, what he’d gone through all his life. 

“It’s okay,” Fitz said. “It’s okay, Deke. Just rest.”


	2. Standing between them and a busy road.

There was something sharp in the middle of the street that Deke didn’t manage to avoid. He heard it and felt it, the way the tire popped. He let out a groan, and pulled over to the side of the road.

“What’s going on?” Jemma asked from the backseat.

“Tire blew,” Fitz answered. “Come on, we’ve got a spare in the boot.”

Deke parked and climbed out of the car, following Fitz.

“You ever changed a tire before?” Fitz asked.

“Where would I have had to change a tire?” Deke replied.

“I don’t know, that’s why I asked. It’s really easy. Here, I’ll show you.”

They took the tire out of the trunk as well as some tools that Fitz, of course, kept there. Deke wouldn’t expect anything less from him, actually. It would be strange if he didn’t keep a tool kit on him, or near him, at all times given everything they’d been through. 

Fitz stood behind Deke as he walked him through how to change the tire, between him and the cars driving past. 

“Sorry about this,” Deke said while he was trying to twist the tire iron.

“Don’t worry about it, it happens.”

“I should have seen that thing. Everyone else missed it, but I didn’t.”

“Deke, don’t worry about it. I promise. This is why we’ve got a spare tire.”

Deke started to say something, when Fitz stepped closer and put his hand on Deke’s shoulder to hold him in place while a large truck drove past. 

“It’s okay,” Fitz said. “Let’s finish this and get some food, yeah? I’m starving.”


	3. Telling them a dumb joke just to see their smile.

It was unusual to see Deke upset. He was usually smiling, even when he didn’t have to. When the world was falling apart, the day a mess, grief heavy on him, Fitz still saw his smile. 

It was so strange that Fitz spent the whole day in the lab across from Deke, and didn’t see him smile once. He didn’t talk about anything inane, or ask Fitz any stupid questions. 

“Hey Deke?”

Deke only hummed without looking up from his work.

“You okay?”

He hummed again.

“Deke, what do you call a magic dog?”

“What?”

“What do you call a magic dog?”

“I don’t, I don’t know. What?”

“A Labracadabrador.”

Deke smiled and let out a tiny laugh like a scoff before he hid it behind his hand, but Fitz couldn’t that as a win for himself. 


	4. Having a tickle fight until you’re breathless.

Jemma kissed her husband on her way out of the room, only to be caught and drawn in to his lap.

“Fitz, really, I have to get to the lab,” she insisted with a laugh.

“It can wait five minutes for me to spend some time with you, love,” Fitz murmured, leaning in and kissing her shoulder sweetly. “Seems all we do is work these days.”

“That’s true.”

Deke stumbled in without knocking as he tended to do, bleary eyed, heading straight for their tea drawer.

“Good morning, Deke,” Fitz said. He only grunted back. “Still not a morning person, I see.”

“Reminds me of someone else,” Jemma said, tickling behind Fitz’s ear. “Remember what I’d do in the Academy to wake you up?”

“Of course, I do,” Fitz said, and she gestured towards Deke who was blinking intentionally slowly to try and clear the sleep from his eyes. “Really?”

“Welcome him to the family with a time-honored tradition.”

Jemma stood up first and headed for Deke’s side. 

“What are you looking for?”

“Tea,” he yawned out. 

“Well, you certainly found it.”

“Strong, black, good.”

“Also came to the right place,” Fitz said as he took small steps and met up with Jemma on the other side of Deke. Deke only hummed. “Time to wake up, sunshine.”

“What?”

In unison, as they’d done things most of their lives, Fitz and Jemma dove in, fingers first, into Deke’s side and under his arms. There was a surprised laugh cut sharply out of Deke, which Jemma recognized as the same that used to burst from Fitz in the early mornings at the Academy. It was hard not to see Deke as part of them when the similarities stacked up, shared mannerisms that couldn’t be denied. 

He laughed so wonderfully, bright in the early morning, the sleep gone from his eyes as he bowed into Fitz for supoort. It gave Fitz better leverage, and Jemma a better angle. Deke’s giggles were joyful, and his knees quivered.

“I give, I give,” he laughed out, voice squeaking at the corners. “I’m awake.”

They paused simultaneously, and Jemma leaned in, kissing Deke’s cheek.

“Good morning, Deke.”

“Morning,” he said. “I still want that tea.”

“Bobo can make it for you,” Jemma offered. “I have to get to work.”


	5. I’d never call you irrational, at least not to your face.

Fitz was having a bad day, Deke could tell. His hands shook, and his voice trembled, and his sentences stopped and started over frequently. Deke also hadn’t seen Fitz smile all day, even when Deke spilled his iced coffee on himself which normally would have made Fitz happy.

“What’s the matter?” Deke asked after Jemma had been called to the medical bay to help with a returning agent’s injury. 

“I’m fine.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t believe that. What’s the matter?”

Fitz sighed, and rubbed the back of his neck. 

“I was thinking about my mum,” Fitz said. “And Jemma’s parents.”

“What about them?”

“And you.”

“Me?”

“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Fitz said, “which I don’t like. I don’t want to hurt them, and I don’t want to hurt you, so we should introduce you, but -- maybe that’s irrational.”

“Well, I’d never call you irrational, at least not to your face,” Deke said, which made Fitz chuckle a little. At least there was that.

“That’s up to you. I have you guys, which is more than enough family for me. But if you and Jemma decide you want to introduce me, however that happens, I’d be glad to meet your mom, and her parents.”

Fitz nodded.

“That’s a good attitude.”

“Thanks,” Deke said. “Look, you don’t have to worry about the future. It’ll come regardless, and we’ll figure out what to do after that.”

Fitz was quiet for a minute, and he said softly, “my mum would probably love you.”

“You think so?”

“She would, she’s very sweet. She loves practically everyone she meets, and you’re a piece of me and Jemma. She would love you.”

“And what about Nana’s parents?”

“That, I’m less certain about. They’re good people. They managed to raise Jemma, you know? But it took them forever to decide that I wasn’t a threat to Jemma.”

Deke hummed.

“Well, I’d be delighted to meet everyone,” Deke said, “even if that’s not as your grandson because that’s a little bit complicated to explain.”

“You’d be okay with that?” Fitz watched him carefully, and when Deke nodded, he asked, “why?”

“I’m a visitor here,” Deke said. “My presence is abnormal, and I can’t expect you to disrupt all of your parents’ lives. Plus, I have enough family with you two.”

Fitz reached out and squeezed Deke’s hand in the quietest gesture of solidarity and comfort they’d ever given each other. 

“I’ll talk to Jemma. You deserve a little more family than just us. You deserve the whole world.”


	6. Not everything is sunshine and rainbows; sometimes it just sucks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompted by @acetoshikosato on tumblr

Fitz hadn’t seen Deke in twenty-four hours and while usually that would be delightful, the fact that Daisy and Mack also hadn’t heard from or seen him was concerning. He had promised Jemma that he’d keep an eye on Deke while she was on mission, and he… hadn’t. 

“Anyone seen Deke?” he asked to the control room, and everyone shook their heads. 

Except Agent Trevor Kahn.

“Trevor?” Fitz asked.

“I don’t know for sure,” Trevor said. “He’s avoiding me right now, but -”

“What did you do to him?”

“He’s been acting weird recently, and when I asked him about it, he told me it was nothing. He also won’t reply to my texts or let me talk to him, so clearly, not nothing.”

“Where do you think he is?”

“He goes to this room, it’s a storage room now, but I think it was where he grew up.”

“Where?”

Trevor led him into the depths of the Lighthouse and pat Fitz on the shoulder at the door.

“Good luck,” he said.

“Thank you,” Fitz replied and waited as Trevor retreated to knock on the door.

“Go away, Trev,” Deke called from inside.

“It’s not Trevor. Can I come in?”

“Bobo?”

“Yeah.”

There was a moment and then the door opened. Deke looked ragged, the circles under his eyes more pronounced, his hair a nest, and his clothes rumpled. He looked worse than when they’d met in the apocalyptic waste he’d grown up in.

“You okay?” Fitz asked tentatively.

“Yeah, absolutely,” Deke replied, and he gave Fitz a smile that might have fooled anyone else. He always seemed so sure of himself that FItz had never considered his confidence might be paper mache like everyone else’s, pasted together and painted to look pretty.

“Are you really?” Fitz asked. 

“Why? What did Trevor say?”

“Just that you’ve been acting off and now you won’t see him.”

Deke sighed, and the smile dropped off his face.

“Come on it,” he said, stepping aside and letting Fitz into the room. It wasn’t terribly big, and was stuffed full of crates and boxes, except for a cot tucked in the corner, clearly slept in recently.

“What is this place?” he asked, looking around.

“Oh, uhhh, it’s a storage space right now, but it was converted into a bunk when the world cracked apart, and -”

“You grew up here.”

“Yeah, you and Nana had one of the original bunks since you were here first. You raised my mom in your bunk, but when Mom and Dad got married, they moved into their own space. I was born in this room,” he said, sinking onto the cot. “I stumbled onto it a couple weeks ago, and I haven’t really left.”

“You miss your parents,” Fitz filled in.

“Yeah, and I know you and Nana could still have my mom, but it’s not the same. She won’t ever be  _ my mom _ the way I know her.”

“Yeah, I know. That must hurt.”

Fitz almost leaned against a tower of crates, but thought better of it. Deke gestured to the cot next to him, and Fitz sank down.

“It’s my birthday,” Deke finally said quietly. 

“What? It is?”

“Yeah, I, uhh, I realized it earlier this week, and that I had to tell people in order for people to know, and that felt embarrassing for some reason. I couldn’t do it, and I couldn’t fake that I was okay, so I hid away.”

He paused and Fitz let him.

“I used to do this when I was a kid, actually. When kids were mean, or the Kree were too scary, I’d hide in the bunk, tucked under my parent’s bed, with this little stuffed monkey that my mom gave me, and I’d just pretend the rest of the world wasn’t there. If I couldn’t see it, it couldn’t see me.”

“A stuffed monkey?”

“Yeah, you gave it to her, and she kept it and gave it to me.”

Fitz couldn’t stop himself from smiling a little at that, that a gift he’d given to his daughter in that hellscape of a world he raised her in had made it to Deke, and that Deke had found some comfort in it. 

“You know, you don’t have to hide. Trevor, me, Jemma, the team is here to help on bad days.”

“It’s embarrassing.”

“It’s not. We all have bad days. Not everything is sunshine and rainbows; sometimes it just sucks. And we have friends and family to hold us up when we want to collapse. It’s okay if you want to fall apart,” Fitz said. 

“I can’t. That’s - that’s not how you deal with things. If I fall apart, then I’ll lose.”

“Oh, Deke,” he said.

“You sound just like my mom,” Deke said, and there was a wobble to his voice. Fitz held out his hand, and let Deke take the next step.

“Happy birthday, Deke,” Fitz said softly, and let Deke lean into his shoulder. “I’m sorry your mum can’t be here, but I am. If you want, we’ll celebrate your birthday however you want. Or we can forget your birthday happened.”

“You’d actually do that?”

“No, we’re going upstairs and I’m telling Daisy immediately.”

Deke laughed, and the sound was loud in the quiet of the room. 

“I think there’s a chocolate orange left in the kitchen,” Fitz said. 

“Chocolate orange?” Deke asked. 

“Yeah, come on, let’s get it before Daisy finds it.” 


End file.
